


Sketchy Business

by Sams_Soliloquy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bad Puns, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Marauders
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-20
Updated: 2015-10-20
Packaged: 2018-04-27 06:45:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5037955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sams_Soliloquy/pseuds/Sams_Soliloquy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It had become a weekly occurrence for Remus to spend his lazy Sunday afternoons in the coffee shop down the street from his apartment. It was cozy and quaint with just enough customers to make a pleasant amount of background noise over the seasonal music and frequent Elvis songs that played softly in the background. Remus found it easier to think with the chatter and clinking of silverware on china, especially while trying to study ancient verb forms for his historical linguistics credit. "</p><p>Remus gets caught sketching Sirius and embarrassment and dating ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sketchy Business

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Staceyisfalling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Staceyisfalling/gifts).



It had become a weekly occurrence for Remus to spend his lazy Sunday afternoons in the coffee shop down the street from his apartment. It was cozy and quaint with just enough customers to make a pleasant amount of background noise over the seasonal music and frequent Elvis songs that played softly throughout the cafe. Remus found it easier to think with the chatter and clinking of silverware on china, especially while trying to study ancient verb forms for his historical linguistics credit.

Not that he was always fully focused on the task at hand, sometimes it seemed that his hands got bored while his mind was trying to focus and he would end up doodling distracting little cartoons or the profiles of other café patrons in the blank spaces of his notes. Sometimes he would get so focused on sketching a scene or a person that his tea or coffee would grow cold, leaving circular rings on whatever innocent paper or book they happened to be resting on.

It was one such afternoon, while the dappled sunlight filtered through the trees and slanted into the window where Remus’s favorite table was tucked, creating dancing geometric patterns on his notes as the wind swayed the branches this way and that, when he walked in.

The young man had to be about Remus’s age, maybe slightly older, with a riot of dark hair carelessly tucked up in a bun, eyes a sharp grey, and a leather jacket that hugged just the right places. Remus may have stared a bit before realizing he was staring and he hastily dropped his gaze back to his table and shuffling his papers as a distraction.

He tried to concentrate on his studies but every few moments his thoughts would get the better of him and his gaze would drift up to stare at the man once more. He was now seated on the large lumpy sofa that graced the front area of the café, although to say seated was a grave injustice to the artful and carefree lounging he was actually doing; long legs stretched out under the short table, one hand grasping a cup of coffee, as the other gestured wildly, emphasizing the points of the story he was telling to his friend.

His friend was just as handsome, all legs, and a mop of curly black hair with glasses perched on his nose. He was smiling indulgently at the leather jacket clad man, who was now smirking as he approached what was apparently the climax of his story. Both men laughed as he finished, the glasses wearing boy snorting loudly into his coffee as the jacket clad man laughed outright in loud joyful scoffs. Remus had never seen something so beautiful as the way the man’s grin lit up his entire personality. He seemed to glow with a vitality and wildness that Remus had never before encountered in his life. It was breathtaking.

Remus ripped his gaze from the duo as the glasses wearing man stood. Remus realized he was outright staring again and turned back to his paper where, to his horror, his hand had been at it again. There lining the edges of his notebook were several drawings of the man on the couch. Here he was lounging on the sofa without a care, in the next he was gesturing with his story, then a sketch of him leaning forward grinning conspiratorially, and still another where he had his head thrown back in stomach-aching laughter. But the most beautiful one, in Remus opinion, was the largest one covering the bottom half of his page. It showed the leather jacket wearing man straight on as he listened intently to something the other man had said, head slightly tilted, half smile resting lightly on his face, eyes intense but glimmering with a light from within. The whole pencil sketch seemed to emit a faint glow as if Remus had managed to capture just a glimpse of the actual spark that fueled the male.

“Hey mate you should draw me next”

The voice jolted Remus out of his thoughts so suddenly and violently that when he whipped around to face the speaker he almost slammed his head into the glasses clad man's face. It was only by a quick backward step by the latter that they were able to evade disaster and chaos.

“Whoa! Sorry to scare you. Are you alright?”

Remus blushed so hot that he thought his hair might catch on fire. He was at a loss as to what to say, so instead he just stared at the man in utter horror. Somehow through the haze of his embarrassment he managed to nod in response to the question.

“Well alright then.” The glasses man smiled at him. “Well guess I better get back. His names Sirius by the way.” The man finished with a wink before heading back to rejoin his friend.

Remus was beyond mortified, and he hastily shoved his notes and papers into his bag before rushing out of the café, not even daring to look at the handsome stranger. He was sure that the man with the glasses had told his friend that Remus had been creepily sketching them, and even if he hadn’t Remus was not going to stick around to find out.

It was three and a half weeks before Remus finally summoned up the courage to return to the café. He had tried a couple other cafes to do his studying at during those three weeks but none of them even came close to achieving the same cozy atmosphere. And more importantly none of the chairs were as comfy either. He was having a hard time studying in those other cafes and he mentally scolded himself for letting his homework fall behind, simply because someone had seen his love-struck sketches.

 _'Remus Lupin you are not a coward! Plus he probably won’t even be there anyways. You have never noticed him coming in before so the chances that he’ll be there again are very slim.'_ At least that’s what he kept reminding himself of on the walk to the café that Sunday morning.

Autumn was in full swing and the cloudless morning had a bit of a nip to it that Remus had decided to combat with a large knit sweater that had been a gift from his mother last Christmas and a well worn scarf his friend Alice had given him for his birthday. The large knit sweater with the large scarf gave him the overall appearance of a brightly colored Christmas bulb but he was warm and that was all that mattered to Remus.

Speaking of Alice, she had had a lot to say to Remus about the cute boy encounter that ‘went all crosswise’ as she had put it in their Monday morning lecture together the day after it had happened. When Remus had told her what had happened , albeit after some lengthy prodding from Alice as to why he had his ‘mopey face on’, and had shown her his sketches which she had practically swooned over before smacking Remus over the head for being such an idiot about the whole thing.

“You shouldn’t have run away Remus, what if he liked you back?” she had said, so earnestly that Remus almost had to laugh.

“Oh Alice and what would such a fantastic boy with a name like Sirius possibly like me for? I’m way too plain for the likes of him. If anything he and his mate probably had a good laugh about the lovesick nerd at the café and then forgot all about it.”

“Remus,” sighed Alice “You need to start having some confidence in yourself. You are just as cute, if not cuter than he is! You just haven’t realized it yet. You should go back this Sunday and see if he’s there!”

“No Alice! As if I need to be mortified a second time in the same place in so many weeks.” Remus’s tone saying he wouldn’t tolerate any more on the subject.

Alice had let out a huff at that, always irritated when she didn’t get her way, and turned back to her notes. Remus wasn’t too worried though because when it came to Alice Longbottom, anger just didn’t last very long and by the end of the lecture she was back to chattering away at Remus about their phonetics final and the cute boy she had her eye on in her psych 101 class.

As it was Remus had avoided the café long enough for some stupid embarrassment. He pushed open the door and stepped fully into the warm room. It was still early for a Sunday morning so only a few of the early rising patrons were scattered around the interior of the shop.

Luckily his favorite table was still open so after a cursory glance of who was here, Remus found his chair and began pulling out his stacks of books one by one until he had what looked like a mini fortress built up around him, many of the stacks precariously perched. Then he set to work.

After about an hour of studying he realized he had never purchased a drink and the early start to the day was catching up to him, demanding caffeine. he managed to extricate himself from his fortress without knocking anything over before heading to the counter to place his order. It was now later in the day and the café had a short queue of 3 people so Remus had plenty of time to mull over his options.

“What’s good here?” Remus was startled out of his musings by a playful voice from behind, that made shivers roll down his spine. “I’ve found that the Mocha is especially good on a cold--” Remus said as he turned around to face the stranger.

His words caught in his throat as he turned and found the grinning face of the leather clad man from before. The man, Sirius, smiled, eyes twinkling with amusement at Remus’s speechlessness.

“Well alright then. Two Mochas, please.” He said to the barista. Remus hadn’t even noticed it was his turn in line. He could feel the blood rushing to his face again.

He reached for his wallet but Sirius had already paid the barista. “It’s the least I can do after James scared you off the other day.” He said with a wink. If possible Remus blushed even darker.

“You don’t have to do that” he managed to say without stuttering like a complete fool. Sirius smiled at him and Remus felt his flush receding at the sight. Obviously he wasn’t going to get called out about the sketches. In fact the other boy seemed more upset by the fact Remus had left then anything else.

“I thought maybe that idiot had scared you off for good after you haven’t been here for a couple of weeks. He really has no tact. Anyways,” He turned fully to face Remus and stuck out a hand, “I’m Sirius Black.”

Remus grabbed the hand and gave it a few shakes as was customary “I’m Remus Lupin. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too.” Sirius responded. It was hard not to feel at ease with Sirius, his off handed, nonchalant mannerisms mixed with his energetic way of speaking combined to form an air of instant acceptance around whoever he was speaking to. It was as if they had known one another for several years instead of having just met.

The Barista handed them their coffees. “Do you mind if I join you?”

Remus glanced over at his fortress of books and papers. “If you are willing to brave the chaos then I’m sure I can dig out the other chair.” Remus said dryly.

Sirius laughed at that, a full blown head tilted slightly back laugh and it set Remus’s insides alight. After a few minutes of foraging and rearranging while Sirius held his coffee, Remus had managed to relocate some books back into his bag and a few others found spots on the floor.

Once they were both seated Sirius grabbed one of the loose sheets of paper that still remained. “Selective lexicon of Koine Greek” He read “Wow what’s that about?”

“Oh I’m a Linguistics major at the college. That’s my homework for Phonology. We’re studying Koine, or commoners, Greek at the moment so I’m supposed to compile a list of common words we might need to explain the grammar patterns found in the language.” Remus drifted to a stop at the look on Sirius’s face. “What’s that look for?”

“Oh it’s nothing” Sirius took a sip of his coffee. Remus raised an eyebrow as he drank from his coffee. “You just look so cute nerding out about languages. I can tell you really enjoy it.” Sirius smiled almost wistfully.

And there was Remus’s blush again, right on queue.

“Well what do you do? Are you a student?” Questioned Remus, anything to distract from his blush. Sirius settled back in his chair, one hand in his pocket, the other holding his cup.

“I’m studying Criminology and Forensic Science right now. Keeping bad guys at bay as it were.” He flashed Remus another grin.

 “Well no wonder I’ve never seen you in any of my classes. It's not like a lot of linguistics courses deal with blood spatter or fingerprinting.” Remus teased.

Sirius snorted “Yeah. That’s true.”

“So do you own a motorbike to go with that leather jacket you are sporting?” Remus teased, hiding his smile behind his coffee cup.

“You’ve found me out!” Sirius said dramatically clutching on hand to his chest. “ but yeah I fixed her up myself. I like tinkering plus all of the oil spots in the driveway really pissed off my parents which was nice.”

They continued talking after that, about Sirius’s family and then Remus’s. They discussed what one does with a linguistics degree and argued over whose major was harder (and argument that ended with Sirius declaring loudly that his major `literally took guts` and Remus laughing too hard to come up with a reply). They joked and laughed and talked for hours, Remus’s homework lying forgotten around them.

Remus couldn’t remember a time when he had felt so comfortable with someone who wasn’t Alice. It was nice to laugh and joke and waste the day with someone new and interesting. Remus had only been on a couple dates before, and if this was a date, it was certainly the best date he had ever had. Not that he was trying to label things.

“What’s this?” Sirius said. He pulled a sheet of notebook paper out from one of the piles.

There was a large elegant octopus drawn in swirling lines engulfing one corner of the paper, one tentacle wrapped tight around a sinking ship, with the terrorized sailors jumping overboard. One of the tentacles draped down the left edge of the paper, transforming into climbing ivy as it went. On the bottom half of the page was a detailed drawing of the cafe, patrons mere ghost of themselves sitting in their seats. The most amazing part was that Remus had gotten the sunbeams dropping through the windows just right in pencil that it looked real, a quiet moment frozen in time.

“Remus this is amazing.”

Remus blushed. “It’s just a doodle. Nothing special.”

“It makes me wonder what you saw when you drew me.” Said Sirius awe apparent in his voice.

Remus had the notebook in his hand before hesitating. He had never shown anyone a drawing he had done of them. They were just too personal. Too raw. But something about this felt right. Slowly he opened the notebook and flipped through the pages until he found the one with Sirius on it. He held it for one heartbeat, then two, before laying it down in front of Sirius.

“They're really nothing special.” He said staring into his empty coffee mug. The coffee shop had grown quiet around them as late evening had fallen.

“Remus these are fantastic. Although I will admit that you didn’t quite get my rakish smile right. See there should be a scar right here.” Sirius teased tracing a small thin line through the lower lip of the sketch with his finger.

Remus looked at the drawing then leaned in and looked at Sirius’s face. It was true that he had a small thin scar bisecting his lower lip off to the left of the center. Remus’s brow furrowed as he snatched the page out of Sirius’s hand and grabbed a pencil. He sketched the line lightly on all of the portraits while staring at Sirius’s lips.

Sirius self consciously licked his bottom lip at Remus’s intense concentration and the brunettes eyes shot up to meet his. Remus stilled as everything fell away but Sirius’s eyes, the dark grey depth intense with emotion. He felt himself lean in as Sirius did the same, both leaning up against the small table between them.

“Uh excuse me guys, but we’re closing now.”

Remus jerked back so hard he thought he might tip his chair backwards. He looked over at the flustered barista and realized that they were indeed the last two in the shop.

“Oh. sorry.” Remus said, flustered, as he began to stuff papers into his bag. He heard a snort of laughter from Sirius and glanced up to see him grinning. “Oh stop that and help me!”

Sirius laughed and began pushing piles together. They managed to make it outside all in one piece with hopefully all of remus’s homework and books.

“Well” Said Remus, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot, one arm gripping the strap of his bag. “Thanks for the coffee. I guess I’ll see you later.”

“Do you need a ride?” Sirius gestured to his motorbike.

“Uh, no thanks I live just down the street.”

Sirius shrugged nonchalantly “Alright then.” He took a step closer to Remus, and Remus’s breath caught in his throat at the nearness.

They were face to face now, mere inches apart. Sirius reached up a hand and brushed a stray hair off of Remus’s face. “Would you mind if I kissed you goodbye.” He said, voice deep and hushed in the silence of the parking lot.

Remus wet his lips and shook his head, eyes never leaving Sirius’s. It was impossible to think with him this close, his mere presence overwhelming. He smelled of spices and gasoline and leather and Remus just wanted to breathe deeply to remember every bit of his smell.

Then Sirius kissed him. It was gentle and soft but star exploded in front of Remus’s eyes as Sirius reached a hand up to cup his face. Remus gasped into the kiss, reaching out both arms to snag handfuls of leather and pull him closer, till they were chest to chest. Sirius tilted his head and deepened the kiss, tongue begging for entrance at the seam of Remus’s lips and Remus obliged, lips parting as they fell into each other.

Then just as quick as it had began they broke apart, foreheads resting together as they caught their breath. Sirius looked down into Remus’s eyes and grinned that mischievous grin that made Remus’s toes curl, as he stepped back and tucked his hands in his jacket pockets.

“Till next time, Remus Lupin.” He said with a smirk.

Remus could only stand there and smile with a shake of his head.

“See you, Sirius Black” Sirius turned away with a light laugh and mounted his bike, kicking the ignition to roar to life. He threw his helmet on and with one last mock salute to Remus he roared off into the quiet of the night.

Remus watched him drive off then turned towards his apartment, a dopey smile on his face the entire time. He couldn’t wait to tell Alice she was right.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello All,
> 
> Couple of things:  
> 1\. I use Longbottom as Alice's last name only because no one knows what her maiden name is and I wanted her to still be recognizable. 
> 
> 2\. This is a cheese-fest but I hope you enjoyed it. 
> 
> 3\. Sorry for any formatting errors but for some reason transferring this from a google doc to AO3 was proving to be a challenge. 
> 
> Anyways there is more to come so feel free to let me know if you liked it. =)


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